The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
An airplane is moved by several turbojet engines each housed in a nacelle also housing a set of related actuating devices related to its operation and performing various functions when the turbojet engine is running or stopped.
These related actuating devices in particular include a mechanical thrust reverser system.
More specifically, a nacelle generally has a tubular structure comprising an air intake upstream of the turbojet engine, a middle section designed to surround a fan of the turbojet engine, a downstream section housing the thrust reverser means and designed to surround the combustion chamber of the turbojet engine, and generally ends with a jet nozzle situated downstream of the turbojet engine.
This nacelle is designed to house a dual flow turbojet engine capable of generating, through the rotating blades of the fan, a hot air flow, coming from the combustion chamber of the turbojet engine, and a cold air flow that circulates outside the turbojet engine through an annular tunnel.
The thrust reverser device is designed to improve the braking capacity of the aircraft during landing thereof by reorienting at least part of the thrust generated by the turbojet engine forward.
In that phase, the thrust reverser device obstructs the cold air flow tunnel and orients the latter toward the front of the nacelle, thereby generating a counter-thrust that is added to the braking of the wheels of the aircraft, the means implemented to perform that reorientation of the cold air flow varying depending on the type of reverser.
Different types of thrust reverser devices are generally known.
One embodiment of the latter provides that it comprises at least one element that can be moved between a closed position (stow phase) and an open position (deploy phase) cooperating in the open position to produce the thrust reversal, and at least one set of electromechanical handling members to maneuver the movable element between the closed and open positions.
The movable element may, in non-limiting examples, be a nacelle cowl, doors and/or reverser flaps upstream or downstream of the cowl of the nacelle.
The set of electromechanical handling members essentially includes electric actuators designed to actuate the movable elements and at least one electrical lock, called primary lock.
One aspect of these nacelles using electric devices is the management of the monitoring and control of these different devices of the nacelle.
The set of electromechanical handling members for maneuvering the movable elements between their closed and open positions of the thrust reverser are thus actuated by at least one rotary electric machine according to the design of the system and driven by at least one electronic controller housing of the ETRAS (Electrical Thrust Reverser Actuation Controller) type electrically connected to an engine controller of the FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) type designed to control and monitor the corresponding turbojet engine.
It has been noted, in direct jet and reversed jet, that the rotary electric machine goes into engine mode for the startup thereof so as to overcome the various forces of the system of the friction and aerodynamic force type, and, at the end of travel of the movable elements, it goes into generator mode.
The energy from the rotary electric machine connected to the braking when the latter becomes a generator is then thwarted, since it is dissipated in a discharge element such as a discharge resistance.
However, the dissipation may pose thermal problems.
The power components related to the control (power transistor, status copy, for example) must then include a plate to dissipate the energy.
However, this plate has a significant impact on the mass of the electronics and makes the assembly of electronic components on the corresponding boards more complex.
The dissipation may also pose problems of oversizing the electronic controller housing taking the amount of energy released into account.